2023-11-12
2008-07-25
Moonlight & Muzak
I think it is safe to say, that "Pop Muzik" by M is one of the best pop-artefacts ever. From the diabetes-inducing cover to the gimmicky "double-groove" pressing, the infectious music with its pre-digital editing, the piss-taking video and the brilliant band-name: pure genius! 
When it came out in 1979 I was in my second year of learning English and deciphering the wacky lyrics helped me to appreciate it´s sexy precission ("infiltrate it!") and the bold impact of random juxtapositions ("Listen to the countdown! They´re playing our song again").
After the huge, international success of "Pop Muzik" (six million copies were sold) it was follow-up time for Robin Scott. Together with his girlfriend and later wife Brigit Novik they booked themselves into expensive studios in Montreux to recprd their debut album "New York, London, Paris, Munich". Occasional Handclaps were provided by David Bowie, who happened to live around the corner and hung around in the studio (probably recording "Lodger"?)
"Moonlight & Muzak" was chosen as the next single. The title (which I considered as a name for this blog) was of course inspired by the mysterious and obscure Muzak Corporation, which Scott visited while being in North-America. He described it as "a very weird experience. There were all these white collar workers conscientiously putting together music with the precision of chemists. Way before Eno was doing it, these guys were doing it for real. They were pre-occupied with the pace of workers in factories, and how to maximise their efficiency".
Listen: Moonlight & Muzak
"Moonlight & Muzak" is a very serene and souave composition, which is counterbalanced by an antiseptic, rhumba-esque beat that is totally drained of all emotions that are typically associated with latin music. It´s muzak! A Theremin melody and other exotic-sounds are drawn from mood-music of the past, while Scott speak-sings a story about being a secret agent who is brainwashed by all the muzak that is constantly playing around him in this "international motel fantasy".
Of course there is also a sax-solo by Gary Barnacle, which almost sounds synthetic in its planned blandness.
"Moonlight & Muzak" is as intelligent as "Pop Muzik". Maybe it was too clever for its own good. It was a Top-40 hit in the UK, but fell pretty flat elsewhere. After all, who knew anything about Muzak?
The rest of the M album is a pretty mixed affair. There is the overblown rock-musical "Moderne Man/Satisfy your lust" and some filler material. Highlights are the wonderfully seductive "Woman make Man" and the title track with its military breaks and the endlessly repeated lines of "Marching to the music. Music made in Munich".
M would record two more albums to much lesser success (and limited release). Robin Scott would also produce "The left handed dream" a collaboration album with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Today Scott works as a musician and graphic artist.
"Swimming in Shrinkwrap" by Robin Scott
Just recently The Gentle People have used "Moonlight & Muzak" as the basis for a new song "What do you know". Check it out on their Myspace site.
2008-03-18
Sylvian & Sakamoto: Keyboards and Hairspray
Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvian: Bamboo Music
Released in 1982, this is one of the last moments of unbound futuristic pop! Shortly after the sound of the decade would turn into overblown and overproduced schlock.
I always wonder why the retro-train has not stopped at these Bamboo houses yet. After all, this has it all: highly artificial music, tons of make-up, white rooms with fog, keyboards and hairspray.
2008-02-19
Mark Stewart: Closer to the Edit
One of the last people I was expecting to have a site on MySpace was sound terrorist supreme Mark Stewart. But here he is and I was pleasantly surprised to read that he will release a new album called "Edit" in a few weeks. He will also go back on the road with his all-star band The Maffia and Adrian Sherwood.
I went out of my way to catch as many Mark Stewart/Maffia/Sherwood gigs as possible in the mid to late 80s. I was bored by pseudo-tough guys like Front 242 who tried to justify their second grade multi-media-horror-show with the lame excuse that they wanted to "force the audience to think".
When Mark Stewart and the On-U Sound was in town, you were about to get your ears ripped out of their sockets by an incredible tidal wave of techno, funk and dub. It was the sound of total audio destruction. But instead of being subjected to uninspired white-noise, you could witness as some top of the line musicians (who used to be the Sugarhill Band, and would tour with people like Mick Jagger) would play their tight set, while Adrian Sherwood would work his mixing desk to maximum effect. With his dub-phasers set on "stun", he would de-construct the elements of their music, chase them through his effects and by doing so, would create an incredibly dense and massive sound in real time.
The bottom heavy funk was held in place by incredible drummer Keith LeBlanc whose drumkit was a innovative set up of analogue and syndrums which were triggered to different samplers and more effect processors to shake two drumsticks at.
The YouTube quality can only hint at the massive sound that was unleashed. This live version of "the resistance of the cell" must have been recorded around 87/88.The audio onlaught of politics, paranoia, dub-funk, reggae and innovative sounds would leave the audience totally exhaustesd (and practically deaf for three days!). The band however seemed to have a blast and would obviously enjoy their sets.
The cherry on top were Stewarts vocals. This tall, handsome guy was working the mic as a living human sampler. His lyrics, a mixture of political agitation combined with quotes from pop, early hip-hop and literature would be shouted like a muezzin from a minaret.
This style was a direct influence for acts such as Meat Beat Manifesto, whose ambition it was to record something more extreme than "As the veneer...". Well, Meat Beat Manifesto are also about to release a new record this year. Maybe they will finally fulfill their goal this time.
Early Pop-Group poems like "We are all prostitutes/Everyone has their price/And you too will learn to live the lie/Aggression, Competition, Ambition, Consumer Fascism/Capitalism is the most barbaric of all Religions" would stand next to a stunning cover version of "Forbidden Colours" by David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Jaques Brel snippets would be shouted over the heaviest beats and feightened screams of "contagious, your love is contagious!" would meet a smashed-up Donna Summer tape-loop.
Although this kind of cut-up art would soon become standard practice, his stand out albums "As the veneer of democrazy starts to fade" and "Mark Stewart" still sound incredibly raw and original today.
With the newly found interest in all things post-punk and no-wave, a comeback of Mark Stewart is certainly most welcome.
